Nexenta Core 2.0 with Ubuntu 8.04 Packages

Nexenta Core Platform (NCP), a free OS with the OpenSolaris kernel and GNU userland, is now out in version 2.0.

The software package in Dpkg format is based on Debian and Ubuntu, bringing the newest Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) with it. The Nexenta repository has over 13,000 packages.

The integrated OpenSolaris kernel is based on build 104+ with some patches. Nexenta uses the ZFS filesystem from Sun's OpenSolaris project. Because of incompatible open source licenses, ZFS (Common Development and Distribution License) will not work with the Linux kernel (GPL). Nexenta Systems, initiator and sponsor for its like-named open source OS, uses ZFS in its NexentaStor storage products.

The Nexenta project celebrates release 2.0 with a cartoon character named Nexentaman. The cartoon touts the advantages of ZFS such as copy-on-write, data snapshots and compression.

NCP 2.0 is ready for download as an ISO-CD image. Upgrading from 1.0 should be worry-free using the apt-clone dist-upgrade.